Drink!

I had an appointment with the nurse this morning, to get my blood pressure checked. Currently at 147/71 which I’m quite happy with. The second number is the important one, it’s down from 86 at the previous reading, and as I started with 196/122 (eek!) then it seems the pills and exercise and trying to be more careful about salt in my diet is helping.

After the nurse had taken the reading she asked me a few questions about my drinking habits, part of a new health push she said. Do I consume more than 8 units of alcohol in one go? Weekly? Fornightly, Monthly?

To which my answer was, no.

If I’m on a night out then yes, I will consume more than 8 units of alcohol but as they are less than monthly what else could I say? She agreed it was a bit of a nonsense and is more aimed at people who regularly consume more than the recommended units.

One interesting question was whether I’d ever failed to meet my duties the day after consuming alcohol. To which I asked “What? Like not cutting the grass?”.

So yes, I’m a binge drinker. I drink to ‘excess’ on a night out. Yet I don’t see that as a problem as, like most of my friends and acquaintances will know, I rarely lose control and only twice in my life have I ever woke up and had a few moments of discombobulation (aka, where the FUCK am I??).

In fact my next night out will be in London, at the Groucho Club, no less, although having checked the price list, this Scottish drinker is already considering a tee-total night!

Liked that? Try these:

Post navigation

6 comments

I had to answer a similar set of questions from the pracice nurse at our local clinic a few years ago. I gave her the best straight-faced answers that I could. At the end, she said “Don’t worry. We take what you say and double it anyway. We’re all human.” Nice touch.

That is a very odd BP reading Gordon. Systolic that high while diastolic OK… did she give you any reason for it, or suggest that you should see the GP?

I really wouldn’t be happy if those were my readings, and I was on medication. 14 years ago I was told I would not get mine under control without drugs, but I wasn’t prepared to have a lifetime at the mercy of pharmaceutical companies, so I bought a BP meter. I can control mine totally by biofeedback – taking my own readings every day (at first) really helped me take control of where things were at, and it made me realise the effect of certain things/people/situations on my body/mind.

I still don’t understand binge drinking. I think it’s the cost of drinking in bars that puts me off most, and, at home these days, I just fall asleep before I ever get to that stage!

Go you!! It’ll feel good that cutting out salt and the drugs are taking effect, all the effort will make it feel more worthwhile! At least you are reducing risk of any bad side effects of high blood pressure so makes me happy!!!

I’m still worried, it’s no good… I saw my district nurse friend earlier – she said that such a huge discrepancy is either (a) BP machine malfunctioning, or (b) something that needs more investigation/discussion. Sorry, I can only tell you what I know…

Well I’m on Ramipril and Bendrofluathiazide. The nurse is very attentive and not just a “fill in the form” type, she took three readings all of which had a similar discrepancy although the numbers dropped throughout.

I’ll check it myself later (I have a wrist cuff which isn’t the best but gives a reasonable reading) and report back.